New frontier: Ashes mark start of unprecedentedly busy year for Alyssa Healy’s all-conquering side

Australia captain Alyssa Healy estimates she has two weeks off in the next 12 months. LACHLAN McKIRDY analyses the rapid growth of the women’s cricket calendar and how stars are handling it.

Australia will face the West Indies, India and South Africa in a busy stretch after the 2023 women‘s Ashes. Picture: Stu Forster/Getty Images

The women’s cricket schedule has never been busier, which is both daunting and exciting for the game’s stars.

Australia’s Ashes campaign will be immediately followed by three ODIs against Ireland, while players like Alyssa Healy and Ellyse Perry are set to play a big role in The Hundred in August.

They will then return for a domestic summer which will be interrupted by a home white-ball series against the West Indies in October, a multi-format tour of India in December then another home multi-format series against South Africa from late January.

It is set to be relentless. Players have been preparing for what is to come since this year’s inaugural Women’s Premier League.

“Looking forward at my schedule, I’ve got two weeks off in the next 12 months,” Healy told CODE Sports.

“It’s daunting, but at the same time, I do feel really refreshed. I had about three weeks off and that was about it.”

Alyssa Healy is excited to see how the next 12 months unfold. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

It is all part of a new era of women’s cricket that players have been longing for. The new contract negotiations for women’s players saw an increase in payments to $133 million over the next five years.

With that comes raised demand for games. Combined with additional international fixtures and burgeoning domestic tournaments around the world, it is set to be a new challenge for players to adjust to the full calendar that comes with it.

“I think that’s where the modern game is at, it’s about your peaks and troughs throughout the 12 months and what’s important on the schedule and what’s less important,” Healy said.

“It’s something new for us, it’s something I’m learning a bit about myself in particular. About my body and how it can and can’t work. I’m excited for the challenge.”

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No player in the Australian team is more experienced in dealing with these challenges than Perry.

The 32-year-old made her international debut in 2007 and has been at the forefront of the growth in professionalism in the sport.

“I suppose it’s a new frontier for the game,” Perry told CODE Sports.

“Everyone’s going to have slightly different approaches to how they want to manage themselves through this new period and the extended amount of time away.

“So far for me this year, it’s been about seeing what it feels like to be away that much and to play in all that’s available. And certainly, you have to be realistic around what that means in terms of how sustainable that is.”

Ellyse Perry made her Test debut in 2008, and has since played a further 10 Tests. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Perry has already played 21 matches across international and domestic cricket in Australia, South Africa and India this year. That number could rise to above 60 by the end of 2023.

At the back end of her career, it is the sort of schedule that Perry has been craving, and despite already being one of the best in the world, she knows that exposure to even more cricket is only going to make her better.

“I guess it’s just a really exciting challenge to experience,” she said.

“There‘s plenty of potential to pick up new things along the way, just being exposed to new environments and being in different situations.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity for the game. There are only positive things behind playing more cricket. It’s an interesting one that people handle differently.”

In recent years, particularly since her move to Victoria, Perry has found she must prioritise finding ways to enjoy limited downtime to help prolong her career.

Amid form slumps and periods out of the Australian team, she credits that mindset to keeping herself mentally sharp and helping provide meaning outside of cricket.

Perry’s first-innings knock of 99 put the Test on Australia’s terms, while she claimed the wicket of Amy Jones. Picture: Stu Forster/Getty Images

“I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have all this time playing an elite sport, but you’re kind of stuck with yourself 24/7, right?

“Sport is something I do, it’s certainly not who I am. Even among commitments with training and playing and touring, there’s plenty of opportunity and space in that to just be you, whatever that is.

“It’s just giving yourself a chance within your own mind and body to be who you are.”

It helps that she’s also found regular travel buddies in Victorian teammates Sophie Molineux, Georgia Wareham and Tayla Vlaeminck, among others, to help escape the cricket bubble.

A glance at social media between series will see the quartet camping across rural Victoria, quite a contrast from the high-flying life they live as professional athletes.

While they don’t enforce a ban on cricket conversations during those trips – “We try not to make it the main focus,” admitted Wareham – having a group of friends who acutely understand what each other is going through makes it even easier to enjoy.

“We live in an incredibly beautiful country, so whenever I’m home I feel fortunate to do that as well,” Perry said.

“I do really value time just out exploring in the open. It’s probably that connection, [going] back to where you’re from and the communities that we exist in, it’s really lovely.

“I love going away on trips with my mates from cricket because they’re my mates first and foremost. I also love catching up with my mates from school and spending time with my family.”

Added Wareham: “When you can take some time and not think about the game a little bit, it does wonders for when you come back refreshed.”

Originally published as New frontier: Ashes mark start of unprecedentedly busy year for Alyssa Healy’s all-conquering side